Take the understanding of the East and the knowledge of the West, and then seek. ~ G. I. Gurdjieff

Bruce Lee perfectly exhibits the value of syncretism and the utility of shattering paradigms.

Lee was born in San Francisco but was raised on the streets of the Westernized British colony of Hong Kong. Here he would regularly get into fights all the way up until he left to come back to America after getting into trouble from beating up the son of a local crime lord.

He learned in both Eastern and Western arts, receiving training in boxing and fencing before having to resort to private training in Wing Chun under Yip Man due to the fact that Chinese masters and other students wouldn’t train with him because of his 25% German ancestry.

Lee was very much philosophically minded and an authentic intellectual. He studied Newtonian physics to understand the principles behind the techniques of the martial arts that he practiced and during a 6 month period of being bedridden due to an injury he researched “the many volumes on martial arts, philosophy, and motivational psychology that he had collected in his extensive library.

"He read and reread Buddha, Alan Watts, Karl Rogers, Lao Tzu, Friedrich Pearls, D.T. Suzuki, and Jiddu Krishnamurti. In dialogue with these thinkers, above all Krishnamurti, the bedridden Bruce Lee filled seven notebooks with The Tao of Jeet Kune Do.

“With a total disrespect for traditional formality and guided solely by the criteria of practicality, flexibility, speed, and efficiency, Lee worked to merge the strongest elements of diverse Asian martial arts traditions together with Western techniques.

"Lee called this “style of no style” Jeet Kune Do or “The Way of the Intercepting Strike,” and adopted “Using no way as way; having no limitation as limitation” as its motto. These phrases were emblazoned in Chinese calligraphy around the Taiju, together with arrows depicting the constant flow back and forth between yin and yang.

“Patterns of rhythmical classical blocks — such as katas of karate — are not suited to the broken rhythm of a street fight. It is not simply that they are not physically versatile enough. Stereotyped technique psychologically mediates one’s relationship to one’s opponent, thereby interfering with a direct perception of the combat situation and precluding an immediate response. Consequently, a process of un-conditioning the mind is required in order to replace a “this is the only way” attitude with what Lee calls “choiceless awareness.”

"According to Lee, “awareness has no frontier” whereas “all thought is partial.” Systems are established out of fear of uncertainty. So as to be secured against being disturbed by the unexpected, one’s relationship to others is fixed within a pattern of conduct. These patterns are sustained by thought, which is a mechanical process whereby memory frames every new experience in terms of old habits and prejudices.”

[The above quotations come from Lovers of Sophia by Jason Reza Jorjani]

[Taken from Facebook]

After three years of research and writing, I'm excited to announce the publication of my latest scholarly study in the history of occultism. Despite its many critics, The Kybalion: Hermetic Philosophy, which was published in 1908 by the anonymous "Three Initiates," is undeniably one of the most famous and influential esoteric texts of all time. In this article, I offer a critical-historical analysis of 12 proposed candidates for members of the mysterious "Three Initiates" to whom the 1908 esoteric text of The Kybalion was attributed.
Drawing on 116 years of scholarship and 62 different sources, including original archival documents and unpublished letters from the 1900s, this new study aims to provide a comprehensive and detailed scholarly analysis of the question of Kybalion authorship as it is understood in 2024. The article not only tackles the question of "Hermeticism" in The Kybalion and identifies the 3 primary sources of The Kybalion's "Seven Laws," but also provides a textual, contextual, and historical analysis of the cases for and against 12 historical figures as possible members of "The Three Initiates." These include William Walker Atkinson, Paul Foster Case, Michael Whitty, Elias Gewurz, Harriet Case, Claude Bragdon, Manly P. Hall, Marie Corelli, Ann Davies, Dion Fortune, Claude "Alexander" Conlin, and Mabel Collins.
I hope that those with an interest not in only in subjects like the history of occultism, The Kybalion, the members of the Alpha et Omega Order of the Golden Dawn, Chicago occult literary history, the Theosophcial Society, Hermeticism, and other topics will find some interesting historical insights in the article and welcome feedback and reflections from readers. :)

Tl;dr

New Kybalion Lore dropped.

The "Three Initiates" = Anna Kingsford, Florence Huntley, and Thomas Burgoyne.

That's to say Atkinson IS the sole author. But that the Kybalion is a Synthesis of three previous texts that were in his possession.

Namely:
-Kingsford and Maitland’s Virgin of the World of Hermes (1885)
-Burgoyne’s Celestial Dynamics (1896)
-Huntley’s Harmonics of Evolution (1897)

WARNING: NEW FORM OF SPAM ON TELEGRAM

We recently had a spammer enter our room, with the chat name and profile picture, with a suspicious link, claiming it as a "new room". Do not click the link, and let this be a warning to other admins to watch out for as well.

I feel like this is a real CBT technique...

That's "Cognitive Behavioural Therapy".... not the other thing....

Eternal you say? 🤔

admins

Wisdom...